148 The Stock Market Crash—And After 
cial girls to clean machines and floors, and pro- 
vided containers to hold finished products. The 
speed of the machines was not changed and nothing 
was said to the operators about increasing their out- 
put, but as these time-consuming obstacles were 
removed, they increased production within a month 
by 42 per cent, and greatly improved quality. The 
wages of the operators increased automatically 
because they were on piecework. The management 
found that costs were reduced in spite of the invest- 
ment in improvements.” 
Technique of Improved Layout 
“Does management stop with revealing the obsta- 
cles to a free flow of work through a manufacturing 
plant 2” 
“Management does not stop here. It has devel- 
oped a technique of clearing the way for a more 
swift-flowing stream of material by improving the 
layout of the plant, by eliminating unnecessary han- 
dling of material, by better planning and scheduling, 
and by more effective direction of a business as a 
whole.” 
“How is the layout of a manufacturing plant 
determined?” 
“By the flow of work through that plant; that is, 
the movement of material from one process to 
another. It is necessary to know the processes 
through which the material must pass, their sequence, 
the machines or equipment required, and, if the